Re: Wording of Assured Shorthold Tenancy

martin_pentreath@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
For what it's worth, my opinion is that the person who drafted it
intended that notice could not be given until after six months had
passed. The way the first sentence is constructed attempts to make the
*giving of notice* "subject to" six months having passed. In other
words a minimum total tenancy of eight months. However, the drafting
is appallingly unclear. It would be very easy to draft it in plain
English, but instead they have opted for gobbledygook. If my initial
interpretation is what the drafter intended then why did they use a
completely different construction for the provision on landlord's
notice?

The argument generated on here shows that the wording is ambiguous.
Because of that as Peter says, the relevant rule is the contra
proferentem rule - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_proferentem
. The tenants would win.

That doesn't stop you standing by your guns and insisting to them that
you're right!

But even if you are right I doubt it's actually worth battling over.
If they breach their contract then they have to compensate you by
paying enough money to put you in the position you would have been in
had they kept to the terms of the contract. You, however, have a duty
to mitigate, ie to minimise your loss by finding replacement tenants
as soon as possible. What would you lose if they gave you two months
notice now, rather than two months notice in two months time? In
either case you would face a void of a similar period, because I don't
think the rental market will be much different (unless wer'e talking
about student or holiday lets where seasonality is a big issue). You
are going to have to absorb the cost of that void, your advertising
costs etc whatever happens, and I don't think you can say that they're
responsible for it by leaving early.

You're quite right of course - he has effectivly three months notice if he accepts *their* version now - as they can't officially give notice for a month, and need to give two - plenty of time to find a tenant.
If he pushes for his version, he can't do *anything* for three months (as they may change mind), then will have only two months to fill it.






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